


Sleeves

by JazzRaft



Series: Dark at Night [23]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-04
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-10-14 22:45:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10545610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JazzRaft/pseuds/JazzRaft
Summary: Noct was nervous.Nyx knew because he was wearing long sleeves.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on [tumblr](http://jazzraft.tumblr.com/post/158091994122/how-do-noctis-and-nyx-react-to-the-announcement) for an anonymous request.

Noct was nervous.

Nyx knew because he was wearing long sleeves.

It was an unconscious choice that he noticed Noctis made. The longer the sleeve, the better protection for the heart he kept on it. Something he’d picked up from wearing suits to political functions, where the first cuts were always aimed at the wrists.

Nyx had learned not to take it personally when the prince showed up to his apartment in the over-large hoodies or a slimming Henley – especially not when he looked so damn good in the latter. Many a worry had Nyx been able to chase with the brush of his hands underneath where the light fabric ridged against the curve of Noct’s back. Or with the tickle of his lips along Noct’s shoulder where he’d tugged the neckline down.

The Henley was easy to scare the nerves out from under.

The hoodie, less so.

The hoodies were for when Noct just wanted to hide from the whole world, and not even Nyx’s kisses could coax him back into it. Sometimes he could do it. Sometimes he could pull down the zipper on Noct’s jackets with his teeth and get him to laugh. Sometimes he could sneak his head inside the hood with Noct so they could hide together. The ones without zippers required a little more of a concentrated effort, usually consisting of Nyx pressing his chest to Noct’s back, pushing Noct’s face into the couch cushions, and Nyx snaking his arm beneath the thick sweatshirt to pinch at the sensitive flesh of his chest until Noct moaned.

When Noct came to Nyx in those sleeves and wanting to hide, it was because he wanted to be found. He wanted Nyx to roll them up and take his heart in his hands. Keep it safe from everyone that wanted to break it.

Today it might have been too late.

Today it looked like it had already been broken.

“How long have you known?” Nyx asked, clicking off the TV that had been advertising the news since the Nifs announced it.

“About as long as you.”

Noctis leaned against the apartment door as it whispered shut behind him. Dark dots of rain were dissolving into his hood. A few strays had dampened his cheeks.

Nyx’s apartment had become just as much Noct’s home as his own, and yet the prince looked so lost now that he was there. He shrunk into that hoodie, hands fisting into the pockets, weighing it down over his waist and dragging the hood lower over his eyes. No zipper on this one. Nyx doubted his alternative tactics were going to work this time, but it didn’t stop him from trying. If there was the smallest chance he could get Noctis not to look that miserable and like he didn’t belong in his apartment – as if they hadn’t marked every square inch of it with their love-making – then Nyx wasn’t about to let it go.

“Hey.” Nyx crooked his head to the side, beckoning for Noctis to come closer. “C’mere.”

Noctis raised his head, but didn’t move. His eyes were dark and heavy, shadowed by the black tangles of his hair. He was hurting. Bad. Nyx could see his heart in his eyes even when Noct was hiding it on his sleeve. They were swirling and shifting in the crappy light of the apartment like magic in a flask, the contents pushing to break out; shatter and spill.

“It’s not so bad, Noct.”

“You sure you were watching the right report?” Noctis laughed, coldly; a sound he reserved for the politics and press that sandwiched his life in between their publicized marital spats.

“Royals are always getting married off. So what? We’ve been sneaking around for this long that we’re gonna be the best adulterers in the business.”

His efforts to make Noctis laugh only made him scowl. “How can you not care about this?”

“Oh, I care,” Nyx said, rising to his feet. “I care a damn lot. I care that the Empire has twisted the ideals of marriage into a bargaining chip, just like they twist everything. I care that you’re unhappy and, yeah, I care that it’s going to be twice as hard to find a private moment to kiss you whenever I damn well please now that there’ll be double the cameras trained on you. It’s gonna be annoying, but the point is, it could be worse.”

He went over to Noctis, placing his hands against the door on either side of his down-turned head, curling down to where Noctis was hiding so he could try to find his eyes inside that damn hood. Noctis stubbornly squeezed them shut. Nyx sighed and traced his thumb along the rogue caress of hair along his face.

“I care, but I’m not worried,” Nyx told him. “I’d be worried if you were being married off to anybody _but_ Luna. If you were marrying a tyrant then, yeah. We’d be having a much different conversation right now. But it’s _Luna_. You know her, right? You guys are friends?”

Noctis nodded, minutely. Nyx could see his throat working through a tense knot, the chords in his neck straining to hold back a sob. And to keep from turning his head into the casual tenderness of Nyx’s touch.

“Then I really couldn’t have asked for better,” Nyx went on. “At least you’re gonna be with someone who’ll be good to you. And better for you than me, let’s face it, I’m a horrible influence on you.”

Noctis looked up abruptly, a ferocity shining in his eyes. His hands shot up and latched onto Nyx’s shirt.

“Don’t say that!” he snapped. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, damnit! And I just can’t pretend that someone else is. The way people are talking… it’s like this whole damn thing is ‘meant to be.’ The second they find out it’s not… the second the _Empire_ finds out it’s not, there goes our peace. But I can’t give you up. Not even for peace. We could keep being at war for another hundred years if it meant I could stay with you. How fucked up is that?”

He leaned his head against Nyx’s chest, heaving a deep sigh, weighted with the crown he wanted so badly to throw on the ground. Nyx didn’t know what to say that could help him lift it. They all wanted peace. The whole world wanted it. And the Empire hadn’t budged for centuries. Lucis had to take whatever opportunity was presented to it. Anything less and its people would have the royal family’s heads on spikes. Nyx didn’t begrudge Regis’s decision to agree to the treaty, incentives and all. When it came to peace with a nation that had only ever wanted destruction, choosing to be the King over the father went without question.

Nyx knew that. He was sure that Noct knew that, too. But he was also sure that it still hurt Noctis, especially when Regis had been the King more than his father for most of his life.

Nyx pushed his hands from the door to sneak beneath Noctis’s hood and thread through his hair. Noctis’s shoulders sagged in instant defeat. Nyx learned a long time ago that he could cheat with this. Running his fingers through Noct’s hair could get the prince purring like a kitten even on his worst days. Nyx kneaded through the chaotic tresses by memory, weaving down to the nape of his neck. Noctis shook his head against Nyx’s chest in a weak rejection before letting Nyx turn his face up.

“Hey,” he greeted the despairing eyes beneath him. “It’ll be fine.”

“How can you not be bothered by any of this?” Noctis asked, exhaustion cracking his voice.

“Perspective. None of this changes how I feel about you, right? I will love you through this and through much worse, I’m sure. No matter how hard it gets. I’m not going to give up on you, little king.”

Nyx smirked at the little flicker in Noctis’s eyes. A touch of brightness in the darkened stare. A flash of total adoration that Nyx prided himself in knowing only he was allowed to see.

“You’re not going to let a couple Nifs and a few reporters scare you away from me, are you?” he added, and this time, relief melted through him to finally have gotten Noctis to laugh.

Nyx slid his hands along the curve of Noctis’s jaw, craning his face upwards. “Let’s try this again,” he said, cocking his head to the side. “C’mere.”

Noctis smiled, slow but sure, and leaned up to kiss him. His hands slid up to hold Nyx’s face, and Nyx followed the lines of Noctis’s arm until his fingers curled around his wrist. They snuck beneath the sleeve to turn circles against the inside of it. The thump of his pulse steadied as Nyx eased him against the door and cupped his hip beneath his palm. The press could fabricate the fairytale wedding of the century all they liked. But Nyx felt it beneath Noct’s sleeves. He still had the prince’s heart.


End file.
